PopSyndicate.com

A fashion magazine editor and his feminist daughter work together along with a cast of funny characters.

Season three picks up with Maya (Laura San Giacomo) still trying to bring a feminist perspective to the fashion magazine, while Jack’s just focused on winning awards and getting a steam room for the office. The season is full of funny bits about Nina (Wendie Malick) meeting up with a former supermodel colleague who has now become overweight. Elliot (Enrico Colantoni) tries to explain to Nina that she needs to see her friend’s inner beauty as well to see her total beauty…then he negates it all by getting up to hit on a hot, skinny girl at the bar.

This season also includes sweeter moments like when Dennis Finch (David Spade) outs himself as the columnist “Miss Pretty” to keep Maya from going away for the weekend with a shady character. And there are moments that started off sweet, when we see Elliot agree to pick Maya up after dental surgery. Of course Elliot forgets and then rushes over to her apartment and finds her drugged. She tells him, in her stupor, that she wound up on a bus and was taken to a shelter, but he tries to convince her she imagined that after watching a movie. Later, she realizes that’s not the truth and drugs him w/the same medication and gets her revenge. We also see the two playing tricks on each other in an episode where she convinces him creepy security guard is stalking him. However, Elliot and Finch get her back by pretending her prank went too far and Elliot had him deported. Maya goes to straighten things out, but the INS suspects her as an illegal alien. A unique plotline that was very funny.

One of the funnier scenes involves Maya writing a feminist speech for a magazine awards show, but Nina picks it up by mistake. In the speech, Maya had slammed her own article, called them all shallow, and then declined the award. However, since Nina recites the speech, she ends up giving the award away that she wanted. Then, when Maya actually wins, it’s for the very same article Nina slammed in the speech so Maya winds up looking superficial. Also, in that episode, Jack (George Segal) had sent in a photograph of Elliot’s as a potential award nominee. However, Elliot confesses that his supposed “best” photo ever was actually taken by a monkey who was on the set. He’s humiliated since Finch has told him that a “monkey could do his job.” When he loses the award, Jack stands up and yells at the other table that they shouldn’t be so proud since they just beat a monkey pointing to Elliot.

What I had forgotten about the show was the extremely funny one-liners. The plots are somewhat forgettable, obvious ones for a magazine, and some that have been done on other shows, but where this show shines are in the quips Dennis and Elliot make in the office.  Each character is developed and given their own storylines, but Spade and Colantoni show perfect comedic timing and are the glue that holds the show together.

This is a great collection to add to your DVD collection if you were a fan of the show or if you just want a fun distraction and a few good laughs.

5